Puppet Power

"Power to the puppets!" The chant rang out Saturday over the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where roughly 1,000 people gathered to show their support for public media.

A meme was born minutes after Mitt Romney said in the first presidential debate that he would cut funding for Big Bird and PBS. Twitter accounts, Facebook pages and Photoshopped images flooded the Internet, but the buzz faded after a few weeks. Then along came the Million Puppet March.

The march gave people around the U.S. who love their local public media stations a place to channel all that passion. We can quote statistics about public media's popularity all day long, but nothing can quite equal the sight of hundreds of puppets marching down the Mall toward the Capitol building.

Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron told the crowd:

When it comes to public media, we don’t need more spare change. We need real change. And if you want real change, not spare change, you can’t beg for it. If you want real change, not spare change, you have to stand up. If you want real change, not spare change, you have to get involved. If you want real change, not spare change, you have to be at the table when decisions are made. If you want real change, not spare change, you’re going to have to keep bringing this energy, this creativity, this kind of fun to the long-term fight. That’s a fight we can win.

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